Living Room / Dining Room Pics

This is how the living/dining area turned out. I didn't build the columns dividing the rooms yet, but the ceiling is done and the walls are green and the woodwork is fininshed. Yippee!

Kitchen Pics

The kitchen has refinished Maple floors, Oak cabinets, restored crown moulding and a salvaged China hutch from a demo in Two Harbors. The counters are formica. The layout works well for us, with three small kids eating at the center island. There is a small window seat under the window at the back of the kitchen. This used to be the dining room, but we moved the kitchen in here to make space for the 8x8 main floor second bath.

Bathroom Pics

I've mentioned before on this blog that I've struggled in the past with MS, which has caused many up and downs in my life. But I wanted to bring a little closure to this blog, so I'm going to go through the house and post pics, and most of the projects are finished, or near completion. Here's the main floor bath complete with clawfoot tub, restored china hutch, and woodwork salvaged from a demo in West Duluth. Just need to finish painting.

Oh Why Not ...

It's been like, forever, since I posted anything here, but I thought I'd be adventurous and say something. It's not that I don't like working on my house, it's just the ups and downs of living with MS and chasing three energetic and beautiful kids around the house. My latest project is adding a bathroom to the main level. This is a necessity, as we now have three females living in the house. That means dad and son get no bathroom time. So we did some re-configuring and made room for an 8x9 bathroom. I started by assembling an 1890's china hutch that a friend gave me. He's remodeling his place, and I was more than happy to take some 1890's douglas fir woodwork. I have enough for the bathroom, and I even have a nice door too. The plan is to have a toilet, clawfoot tub, and two pedestal sinks, along with the china cabinet and a vanity type of thing inbetween the sinks where the ladies can sit and do their lady thing. (I know, strange) I think it has to do with make-up and hairbrushes, but don't quote me on that one. Needless to say, it will be a ladies bathroom, and I'm waiting for mrs. Northland Stories to pick a paint color. Please, God, anything but pink!

Primed & Ready to Go

That's what my living room walls are (mostly). They are primed, except for a couple of areas that I'm still waiting for the drywall mud to dry. It's a stark white color, but it's better than cracked, flaky, dirty walls. I'm also primed and ready to get to work on the exterior of my house. It's hard to work indoors when it's so nice outside. I'm considering painting my trim wood this summer, as well as building (another) deck on the back of my house. This would be a 10' x 15' deck that the stairs would end on that run from the 12' x 12' elevated deck I built last summer. My baby boy is distracting me by threatening to bonk me on the head with his corn dog. I can't believe how far he can fling his food across the dining room. What a peanut. Anyway, The Twins are wrapping up a hopeful series sweep against the Indians, and Santana is pitching tonight, which means I won't be too productive with house projects. But my boy and I will surely finish messing up the dining room. The little ants that have been getting in will love that. Ahh, those ants. That's a story for another blog. Time to watch the Twins ... SWING and a miss!

Living Room: Day 4

Today I spent a good part of my work time taping and mudding the various cracks in the plaster around the room. I've decided to restore and keep the lathe and plaster walls instead of ripping everything out and putting in drywall. This means less money, and potentially less work, plus plaster walls are great for kids, the walls are very durable. It's interesting to note that there are small cracks every 16", where the crown molding was originally installed. Plaster, just like concrete, cracks any place you nail into it. So that's why in many rooms, even in most bedrooms, they put picture rail around the ceiling to hang art from instead of pounding nails into plaster and cracking it. I need to get some of these picture hangers for the living room when its all said and done. I have two days left in my living room battle. I don't set unrealistic goals like I used to, I just take what life gives me with these projects. I'd love to have the walls all patched up, sanded, and primed by day 6, I'd also like all misc. woodwork to be finished. This would leave me with building the boxed beams for the ceiling, and the tapered columns for the colonade. I'm saving those for when I can focus on doing a really detailed job, as I want those projects to be really nice. Anyway, at least I've made significant progress, and after the living room battle dust settles, I'd like to shift my focus outside, where flaking paint, cracked stucco, decks and landscaping are becking and calling for help.

Living Room: Day 3 Coping with Crown Molding

I've been putting this one off for a while, but since I declared war on the living room, I needed to conquer the crown molding. The reason it's so intimidating is because it's something I've never tried before. The molding is overhead 8 1/2 feet, cut with miter cuts and a coping saw, and I only have just enough to do the job. We are in the process of building the room divider with the tapered columns, and on one side of the divider is the original crown molding, and on the other side is a
coffered ceiling with replica craftsman lights that I've been blogging about lately.

I took a picture of the coped side of the molding so you can see the cut that needs to be made so the molding will line up with the piece on the wall it's connecting to. Cutting the wood with a coping saw was actually not too bad. It was like waterskiing. The first one was easy, and the other cuts were a pain. When I learned to waterski, I got up on the skis the first time and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get going again and wasn't able to. Anyway, I eventually was able to measure, cut, and fit all the pieces together.

Here's a couple pics of the before and after so you can see the finished product. I still have to put the molding on the piece of wood trim you can see on the bottom of the divider. I have some Oak that matches the rest of the wood in the house, and I'm excited to see how that looks when it's all said and done. I'd love to make it look like it was like that in the first place, so that people come in and say "boy, they don't build houses like that anymore..." Well, we'll see. One thing I know for sure, baby boys don't sleep well when dad is nailing crown molding. Caleb didn't take a nap yesterday, but he slept well last night.

What will day 4 bring for the living room battle? Ya'll will just have to stop back and find out. My kids are all awake now, so it's time for me to go to work ... filling sippy cups, changing diapers, remodeling houses, etc, etc.

Living Room: Day 2

Yesterday I posted about the ceiling, and a couple days ago I described the Battle Plan for the living room. I'm working on the living room 6 days in a row, since my wife and I's work schedule just lined up that way. So I'm going to take advantage of my time to get as much done as I can. What would prevent me from totally finishing is, of course, budget. We'll see if we can swing the funds for the project, if not, I'll at least get as much done as I can. I'd like to have the ceiling painted, the walls patched up and painted, the woodwork done, and anything else I can get to.

Yesterday, I was able to get the wiring through the wall for the light switch, and I put a dimmer in since there will be four craftsman replica lights in the space, and that can be kinda bright. One other thing that could hinder progress is this wonderful sunshine outside. I just might have to get out there and make sure the sun is nice and warm, make sure the grass feels good under my feet, and make sure the sidewalk to the park is in good shape. Distractions, distractions ...

Stay tuned ... day three report will be full of drywall dust, sawdust, TONS of progress and, maybe some grass stains.

Tic Tac Toe

This is the view of the future coffered ceiling, from the living room floor, laying on your back, looking up. I have 2x6's where the boxed beams will be. The 2x6's are for nailing the beams to when I finish cutting, sanding, staining and sealing them. You can also see the junction boxes where the light fixtures will go. I have a small light in the upper right that I used to make sure my wiring worked. I still have to wire the switch into the wall, which will not be easy since I have to fish it through the plaster wall and down a space of only the width of a 2x4. But I'm sure I'll get it, I can fish wires through walls much more efficiently than I can catch fish.

I also have the drywall mud finished and ready for sanding and priming. I'm not used to working over my head like this, I'm glad I don't do this for a living, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to the "boxed beams and light fixtures" part. Some guys love demolition and framing, but I'm more of a finish carpenter type. I love the detail and putting the finishing touches on things. I'm also looking forward to this room being completely finished. I've been blogging about it forever, it seems, but it's not like we moved into this house and painted the walls and sanded the floors, like other houses we have lived in. We had to strip the paint off the woodwork, and add built-ins that should have been here, and other misc. projects. Anyway, I'm hoping to finish priming the ceiling today, and finish the wiring. If I'm really efficient, I'll even start working on some misc. woodwork that I have to finish. We'll see.

The Living Room Battle

I've been working on the living room area since we moved in. I've been blogging about the cabinets that I'm building with the tapered columns and coffered ceiling, the crown molding paint scheme, but I haven't quite finished it yet. I posted a collage of some living room pics, and I thought I'd post a list of projects I need to finish in the living room. I'll check them off as I go. (On a piece of paper, not on my computer screen). Ever heard that joke about blonde-haired ladies and whiteout on computer screens? Anyway, Here goes, an "Aaron get off the couch and get the living room done please" list:

1. Fix cracks, holes, etc. in walls and prime
2. Finish baseboards and baseboard caps
3. Coffered ceiling-stain and seal wood, cut to size and install
4. Hook up replica craftsman style lights in coffered ceiling
5. Finish misc. Oak woodwork around top of colonade
6. I'm looking over my shoulder at the living room and feeling exhausted looking at all the work I have left to do. Suck it up Aaron and finish the list. Okay:
7. Paint ceiling
8. Paint walls
9. Sand and seal Maple hardwood floors where I added some flooring to replace what wasn't there when we moved in because either someone took it out or the builders slacked off or ran out of wood.
10. Build tapered columns and install
11. Strip three double hung windows at East end of living room
12. Put furniture back and decorate.
13. Open a can of root beer and sit back, relax, enjoy the finished space and wonder why I do this to myself, and think about the next project.

I'm making progress in this room. It's not easy to remodel this way, trying to find wood from the 1920's, trying to make something new look old, trying to afford everything, but it really is fun. I enjoy the process, and my kids are wonderful helpers, quick to hand me a nail or get me a Dora the Explorer band-aid or a pop from the fridge. When you have three kids under 5, you work when you can and just patiently chip away at projects. We also remodel on a shoestring budget, preferring to pay cash for everything and not take out a home improvement loan. So that also slows us down. But these houses weren't air-nailed together, they were built slowly by people who took pride in their work. And I take pride in my work and I take pride in wearing a Dora the Explorer Band-Aid.

ps. Still looking for the digital camera. I'll find it, and post a pic of that cabinet as soon as possible.